"Everybody who hires will have to consider, are they going to make money at the end of the day?" said Alzada Knickerbocker, owner of the Avid Reader bookstore in Davis.

Knickerbocker has four full-time and four part-time employees, who make above minimum wage.

She's already battling giant bookstores and Internet commerce, but she fears that raising California's baseline would put a damper on hiring.

"When there's an increase in wages, things have to give -- whether that means there are fewer workers or more part-time workers," Knickerbocker told KCRA 3.

The NFIB study states California's economic output would be reduced by $5.7 billion if the minimum wage is raised.

AB 10 proposes to hike the minimum wage to $8.25 in 2014, then $8.75 in 2015, and ultimately, $9.25 an hour by 2016.

"A minimum wage increase will result in maximum loss," said John Kabateck, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business California.

NFIB represents some 22,000 small businesses in California.

Kabateck told KCRA 3 that AB 10 would result in "loss in jobs, loss in small business and loss in the California dream. And Californians can't afford that right now."

But organized labor is skeptical of a business study that anticipates job losses.

"We just haven't seen that to be the case," said Caitlin Vega, of the California Labor Federation, which represents some two million union members.

Vega told KCRA 3: "In fact, what we're seeing in San Jose, where they just recently raised the minimum wage, we're seeing workers flooding in. Employers are getting their choice of anyone they want, those jobs are so competitive, they're getting the very best."

Public hearings at the Capitol on the minimum-wage hike are set for April 24.